Steel Burner

The Final Solution Part 4

Neebs was pacing back and forth. He was exasperated and emotionally depressed, fearing the worst may befall his godfather and leader of his people. Grell’s advisor just sat where he was, in meditation.

‘Probably just trying to get his mind off of this.’ Neebs thought to himself.

Neebs was going in endless circles with thousands of paranoia filled thoughts playing with his emotions and mind. Dancing in the endless chaos that they thrived in. Neebs knew that he was next in line to lead his people should Grell meet his end, but Neebs hated that idea, he hated it because it meant his loving family would be gone, and Neebs thought of himself as unprepared to lead. “He has to come back. He has to survive this or we’re in big trouble.”

The advisor slowly edged his eyes open and turned to the worried gremlin. “Calm yourself, child. You are more than ready to lead your people should your father fail, but you worry too much; Grell shall return, and with it, a new age of freedom from the oppression of our enemy.”

“How can you say this, Grendel?! You sound as if father is already dead!” Neebs was letting his anger out towards the one being in the room that didn’t deserve it.

“No child, I merely say that you are more than capable of taking charge. You have the same characteristics Grell has. We have nothing to fear, he will return, I promise you this.” Grendel sounded so sure of himself, so confident, if only Neebs knew how unsure and unsettled the advisor really was.

“Maybe you’re right Grendel. Maybe I am just worrying over nothing.” Neebs smiled a thin smile to the advisor Grendel as he started for the royal kitchen. “How about some tea?”

**********

Grell cried out in pain, his left leg was staring back at him from near the torch. Omior was standing over Grell, locked in a deadlock with Blackwing. Vigil was panicking and running in circles.

Omior’s hold was beginning to weaken and his sword started to close in on his own chest at a slow pace. Grell was still trying to get up and his left leg was now useless, it barely held any strength to hold him balanced.

But Grell fought through it, leaning on his weapon as the blood pooled out of his leg. Vigil was regaining his senses and attempted to hit the gryphon with a spell, this only ended up as a few sparks before diffusing. He began to panic again, trying to fire another spell with the same results. Whatever was happening was affecting his magic and that filled Vigil with dread.

In the meantime, Grell had gained his balance and Omior’s hold was nearly to it’s breaking point. Acting fast, Grell wobbled into the deadlock head on, weapon at the ready.

Blackwing broke the deadlock and kicked Omior across the room, against the far wall, masked in darkness.

After that, he focused his attention onto the wounded little runt of a gremlin that was Grell. With the fire of three suns in his eyes, he lunged forth, attempting to behead Grell. The gremlin was filled with dread, he lifted his spear and held it there backing his face away from where the gryphon was coming from. Vigil kept attempting to end the battle with his magic, but his horn refused to aid him and only sputtered magical sparks, each spell diffusing itself.

The sound of bone meeting talons and steel meeting flesh echoed out faster than the blink of an eye. Vigil’s eyes went wide, his bones chilled at the touch and his faced turned a pale white at the sight before him. Omior managed to get up from his delirium caused by the knockback from the gryphon and had a similar reaction.

Grell peaked his eye open, not knowing what to expect. He looked to the gryphon and saw his spear had landed directly in the villains heart, straight through to the other side. On the sharp pointed end of the spear that jutted out of the back of the gryphon was a familiar and grotesque sight. It was something so amazingly scary to see, it unnerved those who saw it.

.......the gryphon’s heart. Still beating in its endeavor to try and survive. It had been spiked through and seeped blood at a steady rate. Veins were still connected and poked out of the wound, forced against it by the spear.

Grell was about to smile at his victory when he felt a sudden wave of fresh pain hit his chest. He looked down and his mouth was dry, his blood ran cold and he was ghostly white. His chest had five claw marks along it, even a talon was still jutting out of one at the end. His organs, muscles, veins, all of it along those five marks. All of it was visible through a thin layer of skin that bled heavily with red. Blackwing’s heart stopped as the last wall of weak tissue broke and Grell’s organs spilled out of him.

Blackwing fell straight to the ground, tongue lolled out as his crimson blood pooled about him, turning black against the cold stone floor. Grell attempted to stop his descent out of reflex and landed on his knees, eyes wide in fear.

It only took seconds, mere seconds and those eyes filled with hate and revenge turned nothing but clear blue, echoing a ghostly story never to be released in his perspective.

..........Grell was dead.

********** Hours later

Omior and Vigil were walking the same road they did only more than an hour or so ago. Grell’s body limp in Omior’s unnerved grasp.

Vigil looked downtrodden, truly worried of what the city would do now that Grell met his end.

What was left of Grell swayed back and forth in the samurai’s rather loose grasp. Grell’s eye’s had long since was wide displaying his original, pure, raw emotion that was there when he died. All of his fear, his pain, his sadness, and...

....his acceptance.

They entered into the walkway, avoiding the dead bodies, a few of the living dragging the bodies to either be buried or burned. They stopped and eyed the carcass Omior hold intensely and fearfully stopped to follow the samurai and his unicorn compatriot.

As they walked along, dragging their feet/hooves, more and more followed the two downtrodden companions, falling in line moral wise.

Every which way were gremlins trying their best to repair the damage done during the attack. Many of the fire’s were dying down or being put out, but the damage to the buildings and landscape was immense, far more than first thought.

Eventually, they made it to the castle. It was in far better shape than the rest of the city, but still had collapsed walls and small fires around it. When the guards saw the two walking up, they allowed them through. The group following Omior and Vigil had grown quite a bit now, they were rather quiet for the size of the group, not one speaking up; all of them looked too sad to even speak.

********** The gremlin throne room

Neebs had gotten himself riled up with paranoid thoughts again, pacing endlessly, creating a sizeable groove in the stone flooring. Onlookers would have thought that Neebs ordered a small walkway to be built where he was going around in circles at.

Grendel had not moved from his spot since Neebs had left for tea and came back, his cup was long since cold and skin formed atop it. He was breathing in and out to keep himself calm for whatever resulted with Grell. He was silently torrenting himself with endless bashing of thoughts that floated inside his skull.

His thoughts were broken by the creaking and sputtering of the throne room doors, the decrepit doors almost cracked at the force needed to move it. On the other side were many of the citizens and guards, but that’s not what sent chills down Grendel’s back. Nor was that the reason Neebs fell to his knees when the other side was visible.

On the other side was indeed his father, the samurai, and the unicorn. But it was a sad moment, Grell, his loving father, the one who took care of him through thick and thin, helping him grow into the young gremlin he was, was now just a cadaver, his stomach was ripped to shreds and devoid of organs, his soulless eyes seemed to stare straight into Neebs’ teary eyes.

He broke down crying, the condition his father was in was enough to tip Neebs over the edge and he let everything out, all those worries and fears and thoughts came with the waterworks that were already on the edge of appearing. The floodgates had been released and not one soul there was in any mood other than depressed and sad.

Omior carefully laid Grell’s motionless body at Neebs’ feet. His face was red and stained with the quickly dissipating tears that fell freely with his cries and moans of despair.

No one knew what to do, no one had a clue as to what the future would hold now.

Things were getting bad fast.......